Partners overview

The Fragility, Conflict & Human Rights Unit maintains strategic partnerships with a small number of selected NGOs, CSOs and research centres. In line with the FCHR partnership concept these partnerships allow SDC to support international processes that are of importance to SDC but cannot be covered by its several country programmes. This can either be due to their particular thematic orientation or because they are not active in a specific country but rather support global processes. FCHR partnerships cover the three thematic pillars.

DCAF - Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance

DCAF is dedicated to improving the security of states and their people within a framework of democratic governance, the rule of law, respect for human rights, and gender equality. Since its founding in 2000, DCAF has contributed to making peace and development more sustainable by assisting partner states, and international actors supporting these states, to improve the governance of their security sector through inclusive and participatory reforms. It creates innovative knowledge products, promotes norms and good practices, provides legal and policy advice and supports capacity‐building of both state and non‐state security sector stakeholders.

DCAF is guided by the principles of neutrality, impartiality, local ownership, inclusive participation, and gender equality. Active in over 80 countries, it is internationally recognized as one of the world's leading centres of excellence for security sector governance (SSG) and security sector reform (SSR).

www.dcaf.ch

GCERF - Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund

The Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) is the global fund dedicated to preventing violent extremism. GCERF works with civil society groups and NGOs who are trusted in their communities. To address violent extremism, it need to understand its appeal and ask those most susceptible to recruitment what assistance they need. GCERF brings global resources to this effort.

GCERF is supported by 16 governments, international organisations, foundations, corporations and individuals.

GCERF & FDFA/SDC: Switzerland/SDC currently supports GCERF with CHF 1.5 mio per year (from 2020-2022).

www.gcerf.org

OHCHR - Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights) is the leading UN entity on human rights. It represents the world's commitment to the promotion and protection of the full range of human rights and freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Both the High Commissioner and the Office have a unique role to:

Promote and protect all human rights: they speak out objectively in the face of human rights violations and help elaborate the standards that are used to evaluate human rights progress worldwide.
Help empower people: their research, education, and advocacy activities, contributes to the increased awareness and engagement by the international community and the public on human rights issues. This means thousands of people in all regions of the world are empowered to claim their rights.
Assist Governments: through our field presences, they help prevent abuses and contribute to defusing situations that could lead to conflict. Their monitoring and analysis feeds sensitive decision-making and development programming. They also provide capacity-building and legal advice to thousands, supporting the development and judicious enactment of laws and policies the world around.
Inject a human rights perspective into all UN programmes: They mainstream human rights into all UN programmes to ensure that peace and security, development, and human rights - the three pillars of the UN - are interlinked and mutually reinforced.

OHCHR & FDFA/SDC: promoting respect for human rights is a foreign policy goal and pillar of Swiss international cooperation, as the denial of human rights is one of the main factors of poverty. With a multi-year contribution to the Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, focussing on selected geographic and thematic priorities, SDC supports this organisation to better play its key role in integrating human rights in sustainable development.

Switzerland/SDC currently supports OHCHR with CHF 1.5 mio per year (from 2020-23).

www.ohchr.org

INCAF - International Network on Conflict and Fragility

States affected by conflict and fragility are the most challenging operating environments for development actors. INCAF, a part of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC), is a forum to exchange knowledge on engagements in such contexts, improve policy and programming responses and track results. As such, INCAF works together to deliver on our common global promise – the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – in states affected by fragility and conflict, using the lens of the New Deal and the Stockholm Declaration.

What is INCAF?
INCAF is a unique network of DAC members and key multilateral agencies working in fragile situations. It provides a “safe space” where members can share best practices and face up to the very real challenges of delivering results in contexts affected by fragility and conflict. This way, INCAF delivers on promises to make aid more effective, and thus contributes to a more stable world.

How INCAF works?
Through lesson learning and promoting good practice among its members, INCAF works to achieve policy commitments and behaviour change among international actors in headquarters and at field level. INCAF works with diverse stakeholders including civil society organisations, international organisations, OECD and non-OECD governments from partner countries (of fragile states in particular). Together with the g7+ group of fragile and conflict-affected states and member organisations of the Civil Society Platform for Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (CSPPS), INCAF is one of the three constituencies of the International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding (IDPS). The INCAF Secretariat is located at the OECD.

Two Task Teams facilitate the work of INCAF. The Implementation and Reform Task Team (IRTT) seeks to stimulate the reform of donor policies and practices to ensure delivery of existing agreements and commitments. It also monitors member performance in implementing existing agreements, such as the New Deal and the Stockholm Declaration.
The Knowledge and Policy Task Team (KPTT) is INCAF’s ‘knowledge laboratory’. It intends to incubate new ideas and develop new areas of research on peacebuilding and statebuilding, generate evidence on what works and what doesn’t, and to contribute to wider policy debates. KPTT also supervises the preparation of States of Fragility Report, an OECD flagship publication.

For more information, please contact: incaf.secretariat@oecd.org
More information here

Pathfinders

The Pathfinders are a group of 39 UN member states, international organizations, global partnerships, civil society and the private sector, whose aim is to accelerate action to implement the SDG targets for peace, justice and inclusion (SDG16+). The Pathfinders as a global initiative is unique, in that it is the only global member state-led multi-stakeholder platform exclusively focused on increasing political ambition and driving national action to promote justice for all, prevent and reduce violence, and tackle exclusion and inequality. To do that, the Pathfinders has prioritized three work streams: access to justice, inclusion and strong institutions, and violence reduction.

Switzerland is a co-convener (along with Brazil and Sierra Leone), a Pathfinder country, as well as a donor. As a co-convener, pathfinder country and donor, Switzerland's interest is for the initiative to gain traction, to share good practices and to lead on the issue of Violence.

Pathfinders' secretariat is hosted by New York University's Center on International Cooperation (CIC), a widely respected research center that focuses on issues of conflict prevention and recovery, with a particular focus on multilateral institutions. CIC lays the academic foundations on how to accelerate the delivery of SDG 16+, while facilitating a platform for delivery and acting as the central back-office.

Switzerland currently contributes to this initiative with CHF 2.4 M for 2021-2023.